In communication arrangements, incoming calls which do not reach the correct receiver directly are forwarded to the correct receiver. This is the case particularly when a caller does not know the “correct” contact, for example in a relatively large company. An incoming call of this kind can then be forwarded automatically to a person or his communication terminal. Such technical facilities for automatic distribution of incoming communication links (calls) are often also to a ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) systems and are used for what are known as call centers (Hotlines).
ACD systems comprise either a special supplementary program which is part of a private exchange (communication system, communication node) or else an external appliance (server) which is connected to a communication system and prescribes for the communication system the respective relaying destination (person or his communication terminal) for an incoming call. In this context, the relaying destination is frequently also selected by evaluating information about properties of the incoming call (known as call properties). By way of example, the employees at a call center may have various associated geographical areas; in this case, the associate between the geographical area and an employee is an item of property information. If an incoming call involves the caller's telephone number being transmitted (Clip function), the ACD system can use the dialing code to determine the origin of the call and, through comparison with stored property information, can determine the accordingly associated employee and hence his communication terminal as the call forwarding destination. Alternatively, the ACD system can also accept an incoming call automatically and, through voice-controlled interrogation which the caller answers using DTMF key selection, for example, can categorize it, that is to say ascertain call properties, until the correct contact or a group of correct contacts can be determined.
The document EP 1 237 347 A2 Coussement “Distributed hardware/software system for managing agent status in a communication center” discloses such an ACD system in a circuit-switched communication network. A central facility, known as the “Agent Presence Application”, monitors the resources of employees (agents) and transmits state information obtained in the process to further applications in the communication network which are connected thereto.